Falls narcotics officers arrest two, seizing drugs, cash in two raids

NIAGARA FALLS – City narcotics officers announced Friday that they arrested two men in raids Wednesday night, seizing substantial amounts of drugs and cash.

Christopher D. Carter, 22, of 20th Street, wasn’t home when the Niagara Falls Police Emergency Response Team and the Narcotics Division paid a visit shortly after 8 p.m. Wednesday, but Carter was found in a car on Niagara Street and was brought back to the scene.

A plastic bag of marijuana was seized in the car, but police spotted three plastic bags of crack cocaine on an end table in Carter’s living room, along with a plastic bag of tan pills, a digital scale and a pellet gun.

Carter said there would only be “about two grams and some fake powder and some fake pills” in the house, but in the ensuing search, officers said they found numerous plastic bags of cocaine, a handgun and some bullets in the ceiling rafters above the bathroom.

Two bags of crack and $1,940 were found under the couch. Carter also had $142 in his pocket.

In all, police said, they seized 6.8 ounces of cocaine.

Carter was charged with second- and third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon.

City Chief Building Inspector Dennis F. Virtuoso condemned the house, as it appeared to be under renovation, with plenty of exposed wiring and plumbing.

Also Wednesday night, the Emergency Response Team battered down the doors of an apartment on 10th Street as it executed a search warrant.

They found several people inside, including William Lewis, 30, of Falls Street. He was charged with unlawful possession of marijuana after he was found with a plastic bag of alleged pot and $511 in cash, which Lewis reportedly told police he obtained “from selling weed.”